The pending changes have drawn a flood of public comment — pro and con — and are part of the national debate over how evolution should be taught. A Gallup poll released in June said America is about evenly split over whether evolution is true, despite decades of overwhelming scientific evidence that it is.

Missionaries Lon and Ruth Klingman arrived Thursday with Bibles in hand to oppose the new proposed standards.

“I believe that God created the Earth and everyone that is on it,” Lon Klingman said, adding that he felt evolution was not compatible with his religious views.

His wife, Ruth said that if evolution is taught in public schools, “I want it presented with its pros and cons.”

“I’ve never seen an ape turn into a human. It is not observable,” she said.

The State Board of Education will discuss the standards and vote on them Feb. 19. The rules also would require more in-depth teaching of evolution and other scientific topics while setting specific benchmarks for students to meet.

Many public school teachers appeared at the public hearing, supporting the teaching of evolution.

David Campbell said he helped develop the standards being argued.

The standards should include evolution, he said.

“It is the glue that holds biology together,” he said. “The new standards are a vast improvement. Evolution is not presented as dogma.”

Dr. Wesley Johnson, who runs a biomedical company in Tampa, argued in favor of the new standards.

“Science is a method or process. It is not a belief system or a religion,” he said.

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